Founded by theLaskaris family,[6] it lasted from 1204 to 1261, when the Nicenes restored the Byzantine Empire after theyrecaptured Constantinople. Thus, the Nicene Empire is seen as a direct continuation of the Byzantine Empire, as it fully assumed the traditional titles and government of the Byzantines in 1205.
The Despotate of Epirus contested the claim in 1224 and became theEmpire of Thessalonica, but was forced to renounce its claim by the Nicenes in 1242. The Empire of Trebizond, which declared its independence a few weeks before the Sack of Constantinople in 1204, withdrew all claims to being a continuation of the Byzantine Empire in theTreaty of 1282.
TheLatin Empire, established by the Crusaders in Constantinople, had poor control over former Byzantine territory, and Greeksuccessor states of the Byzantine Empire sprang up inEpirus,Trebizond, and Nicaea. Trebizond had broken away as an independent state a few weeks before thefall of Constantinople.[7] Nicaea, however, was the closest to the Latin Empire and was in the best position to attempt to re-establish the Byzantine Empire.
Theodore Laskaris was not immediately successful, asHenry of Flanders defeated him atPoimanenon and Prusa (nowBursa) in 1204. But Theodore was able to capture much of northwesternAnatolia after theBulgarian defeat of Latin EmperorBaldwin I in theBattle of Adrianople, because Henry was recalled to Europe to defend against invasions fromTsarKaloyan of Bulgaria.[8] Theodore also defeated an army from Trebizond, as well as other minor rivals, leaving him in charge of the most powerful of the successor states.
Numerous truces and alliances were formed and broken over the next few years, as the Byzantine successor states, the Latin Empire, theBulgarian Empire and theSeljuks ofIconium (whose territory also bordered Nicaea) fought each other. In 1211, atAntioch on the Meander, Theodore defeated a major invasion by the Seljuks, who were backing a bid by Alexios III Angelos to return to power. The losses suffered at Antioch, however, led to a defeat at the hands of the Latin Empire at theRhyndacus River and the loss of most ofMysia and theMarmara Sea coast in the subsequentTreaty of Nymphaeum. The Nicenes were compensated for this territorial loss when, in 1212, the death ofDavid Komnenos allowed their annexation of his lands inPaphlagonia.[9]
In 1205, Theodore assumed the traditional titles of the Byzantine emperors. Three years later, he convoked a church council to elect a new Orthodoxpatriarch of Constantinople. The new patriarch crowned Theodore emperor and established his seat at Theodore's capital, Nicaea. In 1219, he married the daughter of Latin EmpressYolanda of Flanders, but he died in 1221 and was succeeded by his son-in-law,John III Doukas Vatatzes
The accession of Vatatzes was initially challenged by the Laskarids, with thesebastokratoresIsaac andAlexios, brothers of Theodore I, seeking the aid of the Latin Empire. Vatatzes prevailed over their combined forces, however, in theBattle of Poimanenon, securing his throne and regaining almost all of the Asian territories held by the Latin Empire in the process.
In 1242, theMongols invaded Seljuk territory to the east of Nicaea, and although John III was worried they might attack him next, they ended up eliminating the Seljuk threat to Nicaea. In 1245, John allied with theHoly Roman Empire by marryingConstance II of Hohenstaufen, daughter ofFrederick II. In 1246, John attacked Bulgaria and recovered most ofThrace andMacedonia, and proceeded to incorporate Thessalonica into his realm. By 1248, John had defeated the Bulgarians and surrounded the Latin Empire. He continued to take land from the Latins until his death in 1254.
Theodore II Laskaris, John III's son, faced invasions from the Bulgarians in Thrace, but successfully defended the territory. Aconflict between Nicaea and Epirus broke out in 1257. Epirus allied withManfred of Sicily when Theodore II died in 1258.John IV Laskaris succeeded him, but since he was still a child he was put under the regency of the general Michael Palaiologos. Michael proclaimed himself co-emperor (asMichael VIII) in 1259, and soon defeated a combined invasion by Manfred, the Despot of Epirus, and the LatinPrince of Achaea at theBattle of Pelagonia.
Coin issued byMichael VIII Palaiologos to celebrate the liberation of Constantinople from the Latin army, and the restoration of the Byzantine Empire.
In 1260, Michael beganthe assault on Constantinople itself, which his predecessors had been unable to do. He allied withGenoa, and his generalAlexios Strategopoulos spent months observing Constantinople in order to plan his attack. In July 1261, as most of the Latin army was fighting elsewhere, Alexios was able to convince the guards to open the gates of the city. Once inside he burned theVenetian quarter (as Venice was an enemy of Genoa, and had been largely responsible for the capture of the city in 1204).
Michael was recognized as emperor a few weeks later, restoring the Byzantine Empire. Part of Achaea was soon recaptured, but Trebizond and Epirus remained independent Byzantine Greek states. The restored empire also faced a new threat from theOttomans, when they arose to replace the Seljuks.
After 1261, Constantinople once more became the capital of the Byzantine Empire.[10] The territories of the former Empire of Nicaea were stripped of their wealth, which was used to rebuild Constantinople and to fund numerous wars in Europe against the Latin states and Epirus. Soldiers were transferred from Asia Minor to Europe, leaving the old frontier relatively undefended. Raids by Turkishghazis were left unchecked, and the frontier was increasingly overrun.
The usurpation of the legitimate Laskarid rulerJohn IV Laskaris by Michael VIII Palaiologos in 1261 alienated much of the populace against the restored Byzantine Empire at Constantinople. John IV was left behind at Nicaea, and was later blinded on Michael's orders on his eleventh birthday, 25 December 1261. This made him ineligible for the throne, and he was exiled and imprisoned in a fortress in Bithynia. This action led to the excommunication of Michael VIII Palaiologos by the PatriarchArsenios Autoreianos, and a later revolt led by a Pseudo-John IV near Nicaea.
The subsequent history of the former territory of the Empire of Nicaea is one of gradual conquest by the Turks. After the death of Michael VIII in 1282, Turkish raids turned into permanent settlement and the establishment of Turkishbeyliks on former Byzantine territory. While the emperorAndronikos II attempted to improve the situation, it was unsuccessful. By c. 1300, nearly the whole of the former Empire of Nicaea had been conquered by the Turks, with only a tiny strip of territory directly opposite Constantinople clinging on. The final end of Byzantine Asia Minor came with thefall of Bursa in 1326,Nicaea in 1331 andNicomedia in 1337.
The Nicene Empire consisted of Byzantium's most highly populated Greek region, with the exception of Thrace which was under Latin/Bulgar control. As such, the Empire was able to raise a reasonably numerous military force of around 20,000 soldiers at its height – numbers recorded as participating in its numerous wars against the Crusader states.
The Nicenes continued some aspects of theKomnenian army, but without the resources available to the Komnenian emperors the Nicene Byzantines could not match the numbers, nor the quality, of the armies that the emperorManuel I Komnenos and his predecessors had fielded. Western Asia Minor had access to the sea, making it wealthier than most of the splinter states around and in time became the most powerful state in the region, if only for a short period.
The court of the Nicene state widely used the term "Hellenes" instead of the earlier "Romans" to describe its Greek speaking population.[11] Contemporaries preferred the use of "Hellas" or the adjective "Hellenikon" for the Empire of Nicaea.[12][1] As such, Emperor Theodore Laskaris sometimes replaced the terms Romaioi (Romans) and Graikoi by Hellenes.[3] Emperor Theodore II describes his realm as thenew Hellas.[13] PatriarchGermanos II used in official correspondence with the western world the term: "Graikoi" to describe the local population and "Empire of the Greeks" (Greek:Βασιλεία των Γραικών) as the name of the state. During that time there was a concerted ethnic Greek self-identification initiative.[14]
Some scholars see the Nicene empire period as an indication of rising ethnic Hellenic consciousness andGreek nationalism. However, these scholars caution that a rise in ethnic consciousness did not affect the official imperial ideology.[15] In the official ideology, the traditional view of Byzantium as the Roman Empire was not overturned, as the usage of the word Rhomaioi for subjects of the Nicene emperors demonstrates.[15] The official ideology of the Nicene Empire was one of reconquest and militarism, which was not to be seen in later 14th-century Palaiologan rhetoric.[16]
The ideology of 13th-century Nicaea was characterized by belief in the continued significance of Constantinople and the hope to recapture the city, drawing less on claims of political universalism or Hellenic nationalism than on Old Testament ideas of Jewish providence. The emperor in this period is frequently compared toMoses[17] orZorobabel, or even as the "Pillar of Fire" that guides God's people to the Promised Land, e.g. in a speech delivered byTheodore I Laskaris, written byNiketas Choniates.[18]
The rhetoric of this period also glorified war and the reconquest of Constantinople using images not drawn from the Old Testament. For example, in hispanegyric of Theodore I Laskaris, Choniates describes a battle with a Seljuk sultan as a battle between Christianity and Islam, rhetorically comparing the wounds of Theodore, who had himself slain an enemy commander, to those of Christ on the cross.[19] Dimiter Angelov suggests that western crusading ideology may have influenced the development of this view on reconquest, and during this period there is mention that Patriarch Michael IV Autoreianos offered full remission of sins to Nicene troops about to enter battle, a practice almost identical to a westernplenary indulgence. However, the granting of such indulgences was short-lived, and many of the possible crusader influences seem to have dropped off after 1211.[19]
The Byzantines of the 13th century also drew parallels between the situation of the empire after 1204 and that of Classical Greeks. This evidence has helped to strengthen the view of some scholars, such as A. E. Vacalopoulos, who see these references, combined with a re-evaluation of Byzantium's classical past, to be the genesis of Greek nationalism.[20] With the loss of Constantinople, this comparison played on the idea of"Hellenes" surrounded by barbarians; Choniates equated the Seljuk sultan killed by Theodore I with Xerxes, and Patriarch Germanos II recalled the victory ofJohn III Vatatzes as another battle ofMarathon orSalamis.[21] In much the same way,Theodore II Laskaris compared his father's victories to those ofAlexander the Great and proceeded to extol the martial values of contemporary "Hellenes".[22]
In addition, during this period there seems to have been a shift in how the word "Hellene" was used in Byzantine parlance. Up to this point, "Hellene" had borne a negative connotation and was in particular associated with the remnants of paganism. In this period, however, both the terms "Graikoi" and "Hellenes" appear to enter into the diplomatic usage of the empire as a form of religious and ethnic self-identification, spurred by a desire to differentiate the empire and its citizens from the Latins.[23] Patriarch Germanos II in particular exemplifies this new vision of ethnic and religious identity. His letters equate good birth with the purity of his Hellenistic ancestry, placing more value in his Hellenistic linguistic and ethnic background than in any association with Constantinople, and showing his contempt for the Latins who prided themselves on possessing the city. There is a debate among scholars regarding the exact timing of the shift in meaning of the word Hellene. Roderick Beaton, considering the evidence of the usage of the term "Hellenes" in the 12th century, sees the re-evaluation of the term as occurring before the loss of Constantinople in 1204. In addition, unlike Vacalopoulos,[24] Beaton sees not the birth of Greek nationalism, but rather an embryonic "ethnic" awareness, primarily based around language.[25]
Michael Angold notes that the ideology of the period displays the ability of the Byzantines to react and adapt to changing cultural and political circumstances, including exile, and that the ideological developments of this period were, for the most part, cut short and discarded by the restored empire of thePalaiologoi, asMichael VIII returned to the ideology of earlier periods.[26]
^Melton, J. Gordon (2014).Faiths Across Time: 5,000 Years of Religious History [4 Volumes]: 5,000 Years of Religious History. ABC-CLIO. p. 800.ISBN978-1-61069-026-3.
^abMaltezou, Chryssa; Schreine, Peter (2002).Bisanzio, Venezia e il mondo franco-greco (in French). Istituto ellenico di studi bizantini e postbizantini di Venezia. p. 33.ISBN978-960-7743-22-0.Theodoros Laskaris totally avoids the terms Latinoi in his letters and uses Italoi instead, he also replaces the terms Romaioi (Romans) and Greek by Hellenes.
^The Columbia history of the world by John Arthur Garraty, Peter Gay (1972), p. 454: "The Greek empire in exile at Nicaea proved too strong to be driven out of Asia Minor, and in Epirus another Greek dynasty defied the intruders".
^abA Short history of Greece from early times to 1964 byW. A. Heurtley, H. C. Darby, C. W. Crawley, C. M. Woodhouse (1967), p. 55: "There in the prosperous city of Nicaea, Theodoros Laskaris, the son in law of a former Byzantine Emperor, establish a court that soon become the Small but reviving Greek empire."
^Michael Panaretos,Chronicle, ch. 1. Greek text inOriginal-Fragmente, Chroniken, Inschiften und anderes Materiale zur Geschichte des Kaiserthums Trapezunt, part 2; inAbhandlungen der historischen Classe der königlich bayerischen Akademie4 (1844), abth. 1, pp. 11; German translation, p. 41
^Alice Gardiner,The Lascarids of Nicaea: The Story of an Empire in Exile, 1912, (Amsterdam: Adolf M. Hakkert, 1964), pp. 75–78
^abAngelov, Dimiter.Imperial ideology and political thought in Byzantium (1204–1330). Cambridge: University Press, 2007. p. 95 Also Kaldellis, Anthony.Hellenism in Byzantium : the transformations of Greek identity and the reception of the classical tradition. Cambridge: University Press, 2007.
^Angold, Michael.A Byzantine government in exile : government and society under the Laskarids of Nicaea, 1204–1261. London: Oxford University Press, 1975. p. 13
^A. E. Vacalopoulos,The Origins of the Greek Nation:the Byzantine Period (1204–1461) (New Brunswick, 1970).
^Beaton, Roderick. "Antique Nation? 'Hellenes' on the Eve of Greek Independence and in Twelfth-Century Byzantium,"Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies,31 (2007), pp. 76–95
Geanakoplos, Deno John (1989).Constantinople and the West: Essays on the Late Byzantine (Palaeologan) and Italian Renaissances and the Byzantine and Roman Churches. University of Wisconsin Press.ISBN978-0-299-11884-6.
